Our recent poll (it’s not too late to vote) concerning current and future plans regarding your development platform for web mapping applications resulted in some interesting patterns.   You can view the results here.  We’ve had 643 as of now.

• ArcGIS Server and it’s many developer choices accounted for 208 votes or 32%.
• The ArcGIS Server JavaScript API appears to be the #1 choice among ArcGIS Server developers with 63 votes.
• The Flex API is running second behind the JavaScript API
• Interestingly, more people are still developing on ArcIMS than are using the ArcGIS Server Java ADF
• Open Source development platforms including OpenLayers,  MapServer, and GeoDjango are increasingly popular with 221 votes between them or 34% of the vote.
• OpenLayers was the leader of the pack….no surprise there.
• The Google Maps API continues to be a popular choice with 82 votes or 13%.
• Bing Maps remains far behind Google Maps
• A fair amount of votes in the “Other” category with 70 votes.

The March 2009 release of the Virtual Earth control for Silverlight (now known as the bing map control) was a great release. Up until then, projects like Deep Earth were trying to provide us with a way to use deep zoom + the virtual earth tiling to allow us to build Silverlight apps. Now Microsoft have given us an official control to play with.

One of the big downsides of the official control was the lack of databinding. You still had to add / remove your pushpins & shapes manually just like you would with the AJAX version. There is code available on the Microsoft website that adds dependency properties to the Bing Maps control which expose ItemsCollection, ready for you to databind to. If you combine this with some custom datatemplates, you are able to databind directly to the map as you would expect.

Step 1. Install the Bing Maps control

The CTP of the control is available from Microsoft connect https://connect.microsoft.com/silverlightmapcontrolctp

Step 2. Download the databinding enabler

You just need to download this single .cs file and include it in your project http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/VESLBindingProps

Step 3. Add the Bing maps control to your .xaml page

Add the virtual earth namespace for the control, the ve namespace for the dependency properties, and then the grid. It should look something like this

<UserControl x:Class="SDDNTestRun.MainPage"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
    xmlns:VirtualEarth="clr-namespace:Microsoft.VirtualEarth.MapControl;assembly=Microsoft.VirtualEarth.MapControl"
    xmlns:ve="clr-namespace:Synergist.VE"
    mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="640" d:DesignHeight="480">
    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" >
        <VirtualEarth:Map x:Name="MyMap"
                CopyrightVisibility="Collapsed" LogoVisibility="Collapsed" Mode="Aerial">
        </VirtualEarth:Map>
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

Step 4. Add the data template for shapes and the map layer

This data template to databind polyshapes is fairly easy. You just need to set the polyshape style (thickness, colour, etc.) and then databind the points to the locations collection

<DataTemplate x:Key="MapShape">
    <VirtualEarth:MapPolygon Fill="Orange" Stroke="Green" StrokeThickness="2" Opacity="0.4" Locations="{Binding}" />
</DataTemplate>

And here is how you add the layer to the map

<VirtualEarth:Map x:Name="MyMap"
    CopyrightVisibility="Collapsed" LogoVisibility="Collapsed" Mode="Aerial">
    <VirtualEarth:MapLayer x:Name="ShapeLayer"
        ve:Properties.ItemsSource="{Binding}"
        ve:Properties.ItemTemplate="{StaticResource MapShape}" />
</VirtualEarth:Map>

Step 5. Add some data to the layer

This is the fun bit, figure out what the coordinates for your shape are and create a collection for it. Myself, i’m going to use the site of the Microsoft office here in Melbourne. I’m just going to do this in the page constructor in the code behind

MyMap.Center = new Location(-37.8222600730785, 144.962552763317);
MyMap.ZoomLevel = 17;

var shapeList = new ObservableCollection<LocationCollection>
{
new LocationCollection
    {
        new Location(-37.8217176782418, 144.961662269924),
        new Location(-37.8214041044085, 144.962391830776),
        new Location(-37.8222346484096, 144.963314510677),
        new Location(-37.8228194135791, 144.962638594005),
        new Location(-37.8223617716666, 144.961887575481),
        new Location(-37.8220397256568, 144.962005592678),
    }
};
ShapeLayer.DataContext = shapeList;

Step 6. Hit run and see your databinding in action!

Because we are databinding to an observable list, we can just add new items to it and watch the new shapes appear. It is also possible to add extra points to an existing shape, and see it update live on the map.

If you want to add an extra shape, add this to a click event to see the databinding happening interactively

shapeLists.Add(new LocationCollection()
{
    new Location(-37.8207645163828, 144.961630711604),
    new Location(-37.8200356576319, 144.96164144044),
    new Location(-37.8197136014726, 144.96321857934),
    new Location(-37.8206882408042, 144.962092051554)
});

Step 7. Pushpins

Pushpins are a little more involved. Here i have created a “Point of Interest” class, that has the location and extra details. Here i’m just going to use the location property to databind to. The good thing is that you can use any control as your pushpin. In the included sample my PushPin control expands out when you hover, and collapses when you move off it.

<DataTemplate x:Key="MicrosoftPushPin">
    <Controls:PushPin VirtualEarth:MapLayer.MapPosition="{Binding Loc}"
        VirtualEarth:MapLayer.MapPositionMethod="Center"  />
</DataTemplate>

public class POI
{
    public string Loc { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
}

//In the class constructor
PushPinLayer.DataContext = new ObservableCollection<POI>
{
   new POI() { Loc = "-37.8222600730785, 144.962552763317" }
};

Sample app

In case you just want to see it working, I’ve included the demo I built live at the Melbourne Silverlight Desiginer & Developer Network. Good luck!

http://cid-fc3a2c38819e3e29.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Blog/VirtualEarthBindingDemo.zip

While there are a variety of WebParts out there for embedding Virtual Earth into your SharePoint site, there is a much quicker and easier solution that only requires out-of-the-box features – namely the Content Editor WebPart and the EMBED tag.

The next quick clip shows Virtual Earth embedded in a public site that I created that uses XML to dynamically control the LONG and LAT of the points of interest (known as pushpins).

So what are the quick steps?

Step 1:  create a custom SharePoint ASPX page to host the map.  The easiest way to accomplish this (and what’s demo’ed in the next video clip) is with SharePoint Designer.  The code that is pasted in the clip is contained in the source zip.  Make sure you paste the code inside the <form></form> tag.

Next Steps: if you would like a data-driven dynamic map (either XML or a SharePoint list), check out Microsoft SharePoint Designer Team Blog.

Source: MOSS-VEarth-Simple.zip

Christmas hasn’t started yet but I start it now – with a free piece of software from Siemens. It’s called POIBrowser (“Point Of Interest Browser”) and it’s more than a Bing Maps showcase!

POIBrowser offers Bing Maps on a Surface and lets you quickly navigate to preconfigured Points Of Interest (tourist attractions, subway stations, offices of your company, etc…). For demonstration purposes the default configuration shows a bunch of Siemens offices in Vienna, Austria. However, you can easily put your own targets onto the map and add a thumbnail picture plus text.

After installation check out the Data folder and find the Sites.xml. Each site has a set of properties including the site name, address, description, picture and last but not least the site coordinates!

POIBrowser includes a geocoding module. This module connects to a Microsoft MapPoint Web Service to translate a specified address into coordinates. The geocoding module requires a MapPoint Developer Account which you supply via the POIBrowser.exe.config file. If you don’t have such an account and you don’t want to create one (it’s free!), you have to supply the site coordinates manually for each site. For more details please read the Readme file included in the download package.

Download Siemens POIBrowser here!

Starting today, I will introduce a weekly series dedicated to explore other Microsoft technologies that may seem totally unrelated to Dynamics GP. These articles are based on experiences acquired through pet projects. These are projects that have not made it beyond my computing lab and have become a true passion of mine. My intention is to present them to you the reader with only one goal in mind: show how the use of technology can enhance user interaction with data. The articles will present practical samples of these technologies and how they could perhaps be incorporated into your Dynamics GP development efforts.

Part I: The Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Interface

Today we will explore Silverlight and Microsoft Virtual Earth.

Silverlight was originally introduced as a video streaming plug in, but has rapidly evolved into a feature-rich interactive web applications development framework. In turn, Microsoft Virtual Earth, now Bing Maps for Enterprise, is a set of controls and APIs that allow organizations to take advantage of the latest mapping technology to create unique customer experiences by delivering locally relevant information.

The project

As simple as it may sound, this project allows a user, say for example an account executive traveling to see a customer, to obtain not only geographical location information about the customer, but also view important account information on the map interface.

Getting Started

For this project you will need the following laundry list of development tools and technology components:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
• Microsoft Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1
• Microsoft Expression Blend 3 + SketchFlow Trial
• Microsoft Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control CTP

That’s it!

For having no prior Silverlight or Virtual Earth development experience, this first part of the project went extremely smooth. Of first order, was the creation of the Silverlight Application project in Visual Studio.

After entering the project name, and clicking Ok, I was presented with the option of hosting my Silverlight application in a new Web site and to define the project type of my new Web application. These seemed like logical choices, so I sticked to the defaults. Another option (topic of a future article) is the ability to enable .NET RIA services for my Silverlight application.

Following Microsoft’s definition:

Microsoft .NET RIA Services simplifies the traditional n-tier application pattern by bringing together the ASP.NET and Silverlight platforms. The RIA Services provides a pattern to write application logic that runs on the mid-tier and controls access to data for queries, changes and custom operations. It also provides end-to-end support for common tasks such as data validation, authentication and roles by integrating with Silverlight components on the client and ASP.NET on the mid-tier.

However, for this project, I was going to keep it simple and work with LINQ to SQL to provide data access to my Silverlight application.

After clicking on the OK button, the solution was setup. In reviewing the Solution Explorer, I had a Silverlight client application and a web application as part of the overall solution.

Silverlight client applications also make use of a XAML (pronounced “zamel”) page to define and build user interface elements. XAML is an XML-based language that may be used to define graphical assets, user interfaces, behaviors, animations, and more. It was introduced by Microsoft as the markup language used in Windows Presentation Foundation, a desktop-oriented technology that is part of the .NET Framework 3.0. It was designed to help bridge the work between designers and developers in creating applications. In the case of the application, a MainPage.XAML was added.

Of second order, I needed to add a reference to my Microsoft Virtual Earth Map Control. Since this is part of the UI, it was clear enough that a References was needed on the Silverlight client application.

With a reference to the assembly, I could now add two lines of code — literally — to the XAML page to incorporate a map interface to my application: one to reference the map control assembly, and the other to give the map some startup parameters.

MainPage.XAML

&ltUserControl x:Class="VESilverlight.MainPage"    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"     xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"    xmlns:m="clr-namespace:Microsoft.VirtualEarth.MapControl;assembly=Microsoft.VirtualEarth.MapControl"    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"     mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="640" d:DesignHeight="480"&gt    &ltGrid x:Name="LayoutRoot"&gt        &ltm:Map Name="custMap" Center="41.900632,-87.629631"&gt&lt/m:Map&gt    &lt/Grid&gt&lt/UserControl&gt

I then compiled the code and ran it in debug mode and to my surprise, I had a fully working map solution! Talking about productivity! Wow!

But, while I could make use of the map, this was only the beginning of the work ahead. For now, enjoy this first part. Try it out and let me know what you think.

I leave you with this MIX09 video presentation of Chris Pendleton, Virtual Earth Technical Evangelist at Microsoft, who explains the Virtual Earth Map Control in more detail.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Last night I was struggling to overlay a set of WMS layers on top of Bing Maps and was driven to the point of frustration. The layers simply did not overlay. It always took me to a point on the sea near Africa which meant that the Coordinate Systems did not match. It takes you to the center of the earth (Latitude: 0.oo, Longitude:0.00) if you have layers in different SRS. Could not find any solution in the blogs as well as the ArcGIS Flex API resource center. Maybe because it is a pretty new feature released a few months back in API Version 1.2.

After some research found out that Bing Maps serves their tiles using EPSG 102113 whereas the other services are in EPSG 4326 which is the standard. EPSG 102113 is the same as EPSG 900913 used by Google Map tiles.

So to overlay, you will have to reproject your layers in EPSG 4326 to EPSG 102113. This is how you do it in Flex API.

In your Extent definition:
<esri:SpatialReference wkid="102113"/>

In your Query and GeoProcessor definitions, add
outSpatialReference="{new SpatialReference(102113)}"

The WMS looked like this:
<rmsi:WMSMapServiceLayer
id="mywmsLayer"
url="http://www.myserver.com/geoserver173/wms"
wmsLayer="TheWMSLayerName"
format="image/png"
transparentBG="true"
srs="EPSG:102113"/>

Everything set, I fired up the application only to find that the WMS layers failed!.

The WMS layers are being served from Geoserver and Geoserver does not seem to recognize EPSG 102113. So to get it working I tried changing the SRS of the query from 102113 to 900913. So the new code looked like this:
<rmsi:WMSMapServiceLayer
id="mywmsLayer"
url="http://www.myserver.com/geoserver173/wms"
wmsLayer="TheWMSLayerName"
format="image/png"
transparentBG="true"
srs="EPSG:900913"/>

Bing’o! All my WMS layers are now overlaid properly on Bing Maps.

I’ll have to try overlaying the ArcGIS Online Mapserver services on this now! That should be a cakewalk. But you never know.

Como não fui, eu não posso falar nada do evento, mas segue os links com a cobertura do evento:

Cobertura By DevBR:
http://devbr.blogspot.com/2009/07/innovation-day.html

Cobertura By Zavaschi (Ensinando como eliminar o Acre por SQL):
http://thiagozavaschi.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!8DE5A8EFC1819ECA!335.entry

Cobertura By Ordine (Vídeos):
http://eordine.blogspot.com/2009/07/cobertura-do-evento-microsoft.html

Zavaschi e Márcio Gomes no Innovation Day Curitiba

O Márcio Gomes (MCT) do DevBR disse que irá disponibilizar alguns vídeos do evento, mas ainda sem data para publicação.

Se alguem fez alguma cobertura do evento e não vi, me avisem!

Valeu Cleibson por ajudar divulgar o evento!

Pessoal, até o próximo post!

Pessoal,

Evento (gratuito) muito bom neste sábado. Mas só pelo nome dos caras já dá para perceber que vai ser muito bom! Indico a palestra do Márcio Gomes e Thiago Zavaschi sobre “Virtual Earth + Silverlight + SQL Server 2008″, também a do Marcelo D’Ávila de Pauli sobre “Linguagens Dinâmicas”!

Abaixo o convite:

É tempo de inovar com seu currículo!!!

O Centro de Inovação Microsoft de Curitiba, através de sua iniciativa de desenvolvimento da economia local de software, tem o prazer de convidá-lo para o Innovation Day, um evento técnico sobre as mais novas tecnologias Microsoft e informações sobre o mercado de TI.

Data: 04/07 (Sábado)

Horário: 10h00min às 17h30min

Local: Centro Tecnológico da Universidade Positivo

Rua Alf. Ângelo Sampaio,2300 – Auditório

Programação

10:10h  Abertura

10:10h  Palestra: Gerenciamento do Ciclo de Vida de Aplicações com Visual Studio 2010.

Palestrante: Daniel Oliveira (MVP), Supervisor de Qualidade da TechResult.

11:00h Palestra:  Apresentação do Centro de Inovação Microsoft Curitiba.

Palestrante: Thiago Henrique Zen, Coordenador Administrativo do MIC Curitiba.

11:15h  Palestra: Apresentação do Microsoft Partner Program.

Palestrante: Galileu Vieira, Gerente de novas tecnologias da Microsoft.

11:50h  Intervalo

12:10h  Palestra: “Virtual Earth + Silverlight + SQL Server 2008 – Uma combinação Poderosa”.

Palestrantes: Márcio Gomes (MCPD/MCT), Supervisor de Desenvolvimento e Thiago Zavaschi (MCPD/MCT), Desenvolvedor da TechResult.

 13:00h  Intervalo

14:30h  Palestra: Linguagens Dinâmicas e o Browser.

Palestrante: Marcelo D’Ávila de Pauli (MVP), Diretor Executivo da TechResult.

15:20h  Palestra: SMS Machine-To-Machine, XPEmbededd em Micro-Terminais, Monitorando Performance no WinCe/Mobile.

Palestrante: Claudenir C. Andrade (MVP), Gerente de Integração e Desenvolvimento da Daruma.

16:10h  Intervalo

16:30h  Palestra: Novidades da .NET Framework 4.0

Palestrante: Diego Rodrigo Neufert (MVP), Coordenador de Sistemas Operacionais da ALL – América Latina Logística

17:20h  Encerramento: Sorteio de Brindes

O Evento será gratuito para todo o público. Não perca essa oportunidade!

Vagas limitadas.

Confirme sua presença até o dia 03/07 pelo telefone (41) 3335-7612, com Cláudia, ou pelo e-mail mic@techresult.com.br.

I went to Remix today and found out that the well regarded VirtualEarth brand is now known as ‘Bing Maps‘. I prefer Virtual Earth, but Microsoft were right to bring all their online services together as Bing, if only for the fact it makes it easier to explain.

Yesterday I added 6,000 pushpins to a layer on top of my map. This seemed to be way too much for Silverlight, and performance suffered.

I didn’t actually require every single airport code in the world, and I found this list of 1900 codes from this website. There was no location data, but I was able to filter my origional list of 6,000 against it with good success. The smaller list was clearer and performance much improved.

I also added some extra data as a tooltip with each pushpin, such as the Airport name, code and associated city.

Creating a tooltip is really easy. First I defined a really simple control to display these vales:

<UserControl 

xmlns:controls="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls"

x:Class="FlightTracks.Controls.AirportTooltip"

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

Width="125" Height="50">

<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">

<StackPanel>

<TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}"></TextBlock>

<TextBlock Text="{Binding Code}"></TextBlock>

<TextBlock Text="{Binding City}"></TextBlock>

</StackPanel>

</Grid>

</UserControl>

I then bound it to each ‘Airport’ object I had, and then made it part of the Tooltips content. Finally I set the tooltip to the pushpin image:

private Image CreateImage(BitmapImage bmp, Airport airport)

{

           // Picture of pushpin

            Image image = new Image();

            image.Source = bmp;

            image.Opacity = 0.8;

            image.Stretch = Stretch.None;

            // Content of Tooltip

            Controls.AirportTooltip at = new Controls.AirportTooltip();

            at.DataContext = airport;

            // Tooltip

            ToolTip toolTip = new ToolTip();

            toolTip.Content = at;

            // Add tooltip to Image

            ToolTipService.SetToolTip(image, toolTip);

            return image;

}

It is a pity I only get an hour or so to play with this each night! When I finished I’ll release the code on Codeplex and write a large article about all the steps ^-^

I am playing with the Virtual Earth Silverlight control, and I wondered how hard it would be to make a quick application that could record my flights around the world? 

It turns out the major task is getting a decent list of airport codes with locations! These guys from Holland have a really comprehensive list of airports in a CSV file that I converted to XML and included in my Silverlight project.

(I considered using a WCF service to provide my airports from a DB, but how many new airports are there exactly in these economic times? Instead I embedded the 6K file in the Silverlight app)

I used LinQ to create a pin in a seperate layer on top of the map and here is the result:

Way too many airports in this world

Having 6000+ pins in your map is not great for responsiveness, and anyway you can’t find your desired airport anyhow ^-^

What is the answer? I think some smarter rendering of layers.. that is the challenge for the next post

In deze video wordt er door een medewerker van het Microsoft BI Team de applicatie Falcon Eye getoond. Dit is een applicatie die gebruik maakt van Microsoft surface, Virtual Earth en Business Intelligence. Het ziet er erg gaaf uit en het geeft een aardig beeld van wat er met deze combinatie allemaal gedaan kan worden.

Voor meer informatie over Microsoft surface: Klik hier
Voor meer informatie over Microsoft BI : Klik hier

Microsoft Bing Anasayfa

E-posta adresime birkac gun arayla gelen Bing! konulu maili Apple Mail de Spam klasorune atinca, acmak aklimin ucundan bile gecmedi. Ardindan NTVMSNBC‘de haberleri okurken Bing’in aslinda Microsoft’un bir servisinin oldugunu gordum ve meraklandim.

Hemen bing.com adresine girdim. Karsima bir tur arama motoru cikti. Biraz Google’dan esinlenilmis, sade bir arayuz ve arkaplanda “mavi” temali bir resim. Hemen birkac arama yaptim, sonuc arayuzu cok da farkli degildi.

Degisik bir ozelligi ise Resimler’de gordum. Google’in aksine Kisilerde Ara konseptini biraz daha gelistirmis ve “yuz”, “bas ve omuz” ve “diger” secenekleri koymus. Ne kadar inovatif bilemiyorum ama Microsoft’un boyle bir arama motoru atilimini yapmasi zaten gerekiyordu. En basindan beri Spaces, Live, Virtual Earth, MSDN gibi servisleri saglayan Microsoft’un genis kapsamli ve efektif bir arama motorunun olmasi sart idi. WWW’de degil ancak Microsoft kaynaklari icinde arama yapmak isteyen birisinin Bing’de secenekler arasindan ornegin MSDN’de Ara gibi bir opsiyon gormesi gerek diye dusunuyorum. Bu sekilde belki oldukca yuksek yerlere gelebilir Bing. Ne de olsa hala dunyanin cok buyuk bir kesimi Microsoft urunleri kullaniyor; Windows, Pocket PC’ler, Xbox gibi. Pocket PC’si icin uygulama arayan bir kisiyi dogrudan kendi arama motoruna yonlendirmesi gerek Microsoft’un.

xRank

xRank

Bu servis Google Trends’in neredeyse aynisi diyebiliriz, ancak “kisi” bazli. Su anda xRank anasayfasina girdiginizde Arama alaninda Hadise’nin ismini goruyorsunuz ve altinda populerlik chart’i ile isaretlenmis 1, 2, 3 gibi noktalar ve bu noktalarin temsil ettigi peak noktalar ile bu noktalarin nedenlerini aciklayan haberlerle.

Daha cok “magazin” agirlikli oldugunu dusunuyorum, taniminda da soyle diyor neticede:

“xRank önemli kişileri izler ve sizin için bunları düzenler. Film yıldızları, müzisyenler ve diğer ünlüler için yapılan Live Search web aramalarını sayıyoruz. Daha sonra bulgularımızı bir derecelendirme formülüne dahil ederek dünya çapında en çok aranan kişileri belirliyoruz. Sonuçlar belirli bir zamanda kimin popüler olduğunu ve kimin gözden düştüğünü gösteriyor!”

A Microsoft resolveu juntar peças para fazer frente ao Google Earth. O novo globo virtual da Microsoft se chamará Surface Globe e será parte do pacote Touch Pack, que a Microsoft vai oferecer a fabricantes de micros com tela sensível ao toque. Esse pacote já vai vir embutido no Windows 7.

Segundo a Info Online, o Surface Globe junta a interface de navegação da plataforma Virtual Earth, da Microsoft, com funções para comando por toque. O conteúdo geográfico é o mesmo que é usado no serviço de mapas Live Search Maps, da Microsoft. Esses dois produtos, agora, estão mudando de nome. Ambos passarão a usar a marca do novo serviço de buscas Bing, da Microsoft. O Live Search Maps vai se chamar Bing Maps, e, o Virtual Earth, Bing Maps for Enterprise. A base de informações do Bing Maps inclui imagens feitas por satélites, fotos aéreas, modelos 3D de cidades e detalhes do terreno. Algumas das fotos são feitas a 45 graus para mostrar a fachada dos edifícios. É a visualização que a Microsoft chama de bird’s eye (visão de pássaro). Há também uma ampla coleção de pontos de interesse. Isso permite realizar buscas por empresas, endereços e até pessoas.

No Surface Globe, usa-se a tela multitoque para navegar a uma área específica, obter informações locais, inserir marcadores (como os alfinetes do Google Earth). Também é possível “voar” em torno dos modelos 3D existentes para algumas cidades.

+ Info

http://info.abril.com.br/blog/estacaowindows/

http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/

Η Microsoft συνδύασε το Photosynth, το λογισμικό που συνδυάζει πολλές διαφορετικές φωτογραφίες σε μία απεικόνιση με το Virtual Earth σε μία πολλά υποσχόμενη για τη διδασκαλία εφαρμογή.

 Για να αναδείξει τις δυνατότητες συνεργάστηκε με τη Nasa και δημιούργησε δύο παρουσιάσεις, η πρώτη με θέμα το διεθνή διαστημικό σταθμό και η δεύτερη με θέμα το επόμενο αυτοκινούμενο/εξερευνητή που θα πάει στον Άρη.

Με τη διεπαφή click and drag είναι δυνατό να δει ο θεατής λεπτομέρειες αλλά και να απομακρυνθεί και να έχει μια γενικότερη οπτική γωνία.

Το Photosynth προσφέρει τη δυνατότητα να δει ο θεατής λεπτομέρειες του  διαστημικού σταθμού από φωτογραφίες που έχουν “τραβήξει” οι αστροναύτες ενώ ο διαστημικός σταθμό βρισκόταν σε τροχιά. Δεν είναι ψηφιακές αναπαραστάσεις ή προσομοίωση.

Για να εκμεταλλευθεί μία ομάδα ανάπτυξης  αυτές τις δυνατότητες το λογισμικό που “κρύβεται” από πίσω είναι το Silverlight. H Microsoft έδωσε στο κοινό το Photosynth πριν 8 μήνες και οι χρήστες έχουν ανεβάσει 12 εκατομμύρια φωτογραφίες δημιουργώντας 350,000 synthέσεις…

Please note, the following text is an editorial comment. If you’re looking for information about Bing Maps, see http://www.discoverbing.com

Today Microsoft announces another name for Virtual Earth – Bing Maps. When they previously changed the name of Virtual Earth to Live Search Maps, I understood their intention of aligning their consumer mapping application (Virtual Earth) with the other consumer applications in the Microsoft Live Search family. However I personally disliked the name Live Search Maps; it was too long and unfriendly. So I’ve always continued to refer to the service as Virtual Earth (as did many other people).

This time Microsoft is attempting a much larger rebranding strategy around a new search platform Bing.com. Bing is an attempt to gain some ground on Google in the search arena. While Bing is a hip name, the rebranding does make me wonder what Microsoft is thinking. I’m sure a large part of the change is hope that Bing will become a household verb like Google. Somewhere a Microsoft ad agency is dreaming about people asking one another, “did you Bing it? What is it? Where is it?”

Microsoft is throwing g a lot of money ($80 to $100 million) at this rebranding campaign to get consumers to question whether Internet searching is giving them what they want. Unless they’ve got some fantastic features to show consumers an alternate reality that is markedly better, Bing will probably not work. Google achieved search dominance because they had a superior product. To supplant them in the search arena, Bing must be better, not just fancier. A fancy updated user interface with web site previews inside pop-up windows and a multi-million dollar marketing campaign did not help Ask.com. So what kind of bling does Bing have that is going to make me switch?

As an aside, while the name Bing is better than Kumo (another name in contention by Microsoft), when I read the single syllable word “Bing” after the word Microsoft, I instantly thought of another single-syllable word “Bob” – another famous Microsoft failure. I’m not trying to be funny; the association was instantaneous and completely uncontrived.

From the perspective of a geospatial professional I think Microsoft is trying to deal with an identity crisis. If we look at the suite of mapping related products/services offered by Microsoft there are:

• Live Search Maps (Formerly Virtual Earth)
• Microsoft Virtual Earth APIs – which were used to interact with Live Search Maps
• MapPoint Web Service

In the near future Bing rebranding will change:

• Live Search Maps = Bing Maps
• Microsoft Virtual Earth API = Bing Maps for Enterprise

Since the MapPoint Web Service name is not being changed, I’m guessing that this does not bode well for its future.

I am curious about whether there are plans to align all of the Windows Live products (Messenger, Mail, Calendar, Photos, Spaces, SkyDrive, etc.) around the Bing brand. Otherwise, it seems there will still be an identify crisis when it comes to consumer products. I am supposed to use Bing to search, but use Live for everything else.) Not to tout the obvious, but gMail, gTalk, Google Docs, etc. all unite around the name Google. How will Bing and Live become associated with Microsoft without millions of dollars of marketing?

I do think it’s a good idea for Microsoft to fix its geospatial product identify crisis and align their search related offerings around one brand. However, I think the product/service naming could be tighter. For example, Google’s mapping environment is named Google Maps. Their API is named the Google Maps API. Their 3D version is named Google Earth. It’s all very intuitive. It’s why I liked the name “Virtual Earth”, it worked.

If Microsoft wants to align their geospatial offerings around a fun (and potentially verb-able) product name like Bing, then I suggest they name their primary mapping products “Bing Earth” and “Bing Earth for Enterprise”. The API would then be called “Bing Earth API”. While they are at it, they could rename the desktop application MapPoint to “Bing Earth Studio” or “Bing Earth Desktop”. Sure Google would be mad, but is the name Bing Maps any different than Google Maps? Besides, Microsoft was already using the word Earth in Virtual Earth, so there’s already a precedent for some overlap.

In deze video demonstreert Chris Pendleton de VESL (Virtual Earth Silverlight) Map Control. Met deze control kunnen we een nieuwe generatie van mapping controls maken. Het is weliswaar een preview, maar het ziet er veelbelovend uit. De control is hier te downloaden

Foi lançada no passado dia 22 de Maio a nova versão 1.2 da API ArcGIS para Flex™.

Esta nova versão inclui:

• Routing com serviços de ArcGIS Server 9.3.1.
• Serviços de Mapas Microsoft Virtual Earth.
• Serviços de Geocoding com Microsoft Virtual Earth.
• Renderizadores para produção simplificada de Mapas Temáticos.
• Pacote de utilidades para conversão entre diferentes sistemas de coordenadas.
• Novas propriedades na simbologia de Texto.
• Slider de Navegação com mais propriedades e mais costumizável.
• Novos exemplos e actualização dos existentes.

Mais detalhes sobre esta versão podem ser encontrados aqui.

Esta API vem no seguimento da versão 9.3.1 do ArcGIS mas mantém a compatibilidade com os serviços em 9.3.

Aqui fica um pequeno exemplo: